Sir, I Like the Way You Think!

On October 5, 2011, the world lost Steve Jobs, the legendary CEO of Apple, Inc.  Mr. Jobs was a visionary and innovator of exceptional creativity and energy.  His inventions, which include the iPad, the iPod, iTunes,and many others, quite literally changed the world in terms of how we work, play, and communicate.

Admittedly, I'm generally 5-7 years behind the rest of the world in terms of jumping on the gadget bandwagon, so I couldn't even fake being an aficionado if I wanted to.  But I do love my iPod Shuffle and my iTunes, and whenever I go to an electronics store, I ogle the iPad on display most covetously.  I recognize very cool stuff when I see it.

What's been very interesting to me since Mr. Jobs's untimely loss is the information coming out about him as a person.  Clearly he was admired and revered as a professional and a creator.  His career is well documented.  His personal life, on the other hand, seems much more mysterious, apparently by his own intent.  Because human beings are a curious breed, there is already a lot of conversation floating around about Steve Jobs the Man, and I suspect we'll be learning a lot about him over the coming years in articles, books, and movies.  And some of the information we will be presented with might even be true!

I'm looking forward to it.  I'm intrigued by Steve Jobs.  Some might call me "nosy."  I prefer to think of myself as a student of the human experience.  Whatever you call it, I'm fascinated by the mundane lives of extremely interesting people; and conversely, I'm fascinated by the extremely interesting lives of mundane people.  Yep, nosy kind of sums it up.  In any event, from the very little bit of information I've come across about Steve Jobs, it sounds as if his personal life might have been kind of. . . well . . .quirky.

Which leads me to wonder whether or not Mr. Jobs might have had a touch of the ADHD.  He was an extraordinary, creative, highly energetic, unconventional thinker with perhaps some "quirks."  ADHDers out there, does any of that sound a little bit familiar?  I'm not the only one asking that question.  I know, because I Googled it. 

I suppose it's possible that Steve Jobs had ADHD.  A lot of things the world knows about him could point to that conclusion.  I'd be more convinced that was an ADHDer if we also knew that he couldn't balance a checkbook for anything, or remember to buy his wife a birthday card until at least three days after her birthday, or if he used to accidentally leave his iPhone in the fridge when grabbing a cold one after a long day at the inventors' table.  But we don't know those things, and it's really none of our business.  It doesn't matter. 

But it's still interesting to think about.  And although I would never be so delusional as to think that I could ever have successfully matched wits with Steve Jobs's shoe laces, much less than with the brilliant man himself, I think the example of this life is a good one to keep in mind for those of us who struggle with the challenges of ADHD:  Great and wondrous things can emerge from an unconventional and unconstrained mind.  If you have ADD/ADHD, you're off to an awesome start!